Referent and architectural project

Relations between history, pre-existence and some contemporary project didactics in Buenos Aires

Abstract

This work addresses the relationship of the architectural project with the previous architecture, with the body of works and projects that are part of the disciplinary heritage. In particular, the different modalities of this relationship are problematized in certain didactic current academic projects in which the preceding work dialogues with the new project under the name of reference. The use of this term is slippery and unspecific: many are the meanings and practices that it includes depending on the area where it is used. To demonstrate this apparent polysemy, we investigate experiences developed in project workshops of some schools in Buenos Aires -especially in the UBA, DI TELLA and UNSAM. Through the analysis of cases, we try to illuminate some of the particular ways in which the relation between project and reference has occurred. At the same time, other terms of frequent use -analogy, paradigm or project material- are reviewed, which allow to put into dialogue and tighten the concept of reference that we are trying to discuss. The main hypothesis is that behind the reference are concealed not only different meanings but also different project operativities, ways of installing the project in a certain tradition that implies and prescribes particular ways of doing.